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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Thomas Mathew, the suspended Union home ministry official, has denied having helped tehelka.com in any manner to investigate corruption in defence purchases.
The elusive official made a brief appearance at a restaurant in Delhi on Thursday evening to give rediff.com his side of the story.
"If you are going to record the conversation I am going to call off the meeting here and now," he threatened as soon as he saw us taking notes.
But once we had settled down, he began to talk. "I first met Samuel Mathew some time in September 2000 when he came to see me regarding the transfer of his relatives in the defence forces. But I refused to oblige him," he said.
Could the tehelka.com reporter have used this as a mere pretext to get to met Mathew? "I cannot be defrauded by upstart reporters like him," he boasted.
According to Mathew, the meetings with Samuel Mathew continued. "I must have met him a few times," he said. "Aniruddha Bahal [the other member of the tehelka sting team] did meet me once through another friend. He wanted a certificate for his passport. I gave him one. Later, someone said I could have made money on that," he quipped.
The official said he and Samuel Mathew shared a common bond because they both belong to the Orthodox Church in Janakpuri.
He showed copies of the notice served on him by the home ministry and the letter he had written to the President of India. But he refused to part with them.
"I do not give documents to anyone," he remarked. "I have committed no offence. I have not helped tehelka's reporters in any manner, nor have I given them anything to work on. I have not introduced them to any official in the ministry of defence. The only person I know in Army Headquarters is a UDC, who is a family friend."
Referring to the charge that he has assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, Mathew said, "The flat where I am living belongs to my brother and my wife hold power of attorney. I have a 200 square yard plot in Ghaziabad, which is worth Rs 6 lakh. As far as bank accounts are concerned, the only bank account I have is with the State Bank of India in North Block where my salary is deposited every month."
He used to have an account with the SBI branch at Rail Bhavan when he was working as officer on special duty with former railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan. "That account was closed when I moved to North Block," he said. "I have another account with Syndicate Bank in Transport Bhavan, where I worked for ten years. You can check the balance."
Asked why he was being investigated if he had nothing to do with the Tehelka expose, Mathew remarked, "Maybe they thought I was a soft target."
The official said all sorts of charges had been made against him. "I was never posted in the Northeast branch of the home ministry," he clarified. "None of the officers of my department were ever suspended. Only one official who leaked some information at the instance of the IB [Intelligence Bureau] was suspended later."
Asked how he would counter the charges against him, he remarked, "I worked as vigilance officer with Paswan and have handled such inquiries endless times. I have not violated a single rule for which I could be penalised. They cannot even stop my increment. They are trying to make me a scapegoat. I will fight them. I am not going to give up."
Mathew denied knowing any person called Harichand Prasad. "I know how stories are being planted against me. I was an active worker of the Students' Federation of India during my college days. I entered service in June 1975 and two weeks later Emergency was imposed. The likes of Samuel cannot take me for a ride because I have spent more number of years in service than his age," he said.
He left in a huff when asked if he feared that anyone was tailing him. "I think it's time for me to go," he said.
According to sources, Mathew has not slept in his own house in Sainik Nagar since the hoe ministry suspended him.
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